NORTH MAGNETIC POLE DISCOVERED. 307 



lasting for more than a week. It soon became evident that the " Victory " 

 was not to be released this season ; and on the 30th September the explorers 

 found themselves frozen in for another year in a harbour only a few miles 

 distant from tliat in which they had spent the winter of 1829-30. 



The principal enterprise undertaken by the explorers during the year 

 1831 was the journey undertaken under the command of the younger Koss, 

 to ascertain the position of the North Magnetic Pole. This question had 

 deeply engaged the attention of Parry and Franklin ; and one of the objects 

 they had in view in making daily records of the variation of the compass, 

 and the dip of the magnetic needle, was to arrive at some satisfactory solu- 

 tion of it. From the mass of their observations, these navigators had calcu- 

 lated the position of this important spot to be in 70° of north latitude, and 

 in 98° 30' of west longitude. " Thus," says Commander Eoss, " it appeared 

 that in the course of my land journey to the westward in the preceding year 

 (1830) I had been within ten miles of this assigned place, when near Cape 

 Felix, but as I was not then provided with the necessary instruments, I 

 could do nothing towards verifying the fact." Now, however, when the 

 " Victory " had been again imprisoned in the ice, and when there was little 

 to employ her officers and men, Commander Ross resolved to make an 

 attempt to set this question at rest. Accordingly, setting out on the 27th 

 with his party, Eoss travelled westward all night across Boothia Isthmus 

 until eight on the following morning, when he made his encampment in lat. 

 69° 34' 45", long. 94° 54' 23" W. At this point he found that the dip of the 

 magnetic needle had increased to 89° 41' N., and that the north end of the 

 horizontal needle pointed to north 57° W. " By means of these observa- 

 tions," writes the explorer, " I was enabled to determine both the direction 

 in which we must proceed, and the distance that lay between us and the 

 great object in view." On the evening of the 28th the march was resumed, 

 and, as usual, continued during the night, to lessen as far as possible the 

 danger from snow-blindness. On encamping on the morning of the 30th 

 May, the latitude was found to be 69° 46' 25", the long. 95° 49' 11" W. Eoss 

 was now coasting a wide inlet running westward from Boothia Isthmus into 

 one of the arms of the Arctic Ocean. On the morning of the 31st the party 

 had reached to within fourteen miles of the position of the Magnetic Pole, 

 as calculated by Eoss. Leaving all unnecessary baggage and provisions 

 behind, the young explorer set out on a rapid march, and reached the spot 

 which, according to his calculations, marked the position of the Magnetic 

 Pole, at eight in the morning of the 1st June. " I believe I must leave it to 

 others," he writes, " to imagine the elation of mind with which we found 

 ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition. It 

 almost seemed as if we had accomplished everything that we had come so 

 far to see and to do ; as if our voyage and all its labours were at an end, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



